The Samuel Elmer Kesler Family

By Lucyle Kesler

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Elmer Kesler and children, Marie and Ralph, arrived in Jacksonville in 1910. They had lived in Illinois, Oklahoma and New Mexico.

The Keslers lived in a house on the corner of South Jackson and Commerce streets. Later the family moved to a home on South Bonner Street. In 1921, the Keslers built their home, a two-story brick, on Myrtle Drive. This property was sold, and later the house burned. Mr. Kesler and Ralph built their homes on lots next to their first home on Myrtle Drive. Ralph and his wife live here.

Mr. Kesler was a building contractor and farmer. One of his early buildings is the Presbyterian Church in Rusk which still is being used by the Rusk congregation.

Marie Kesler married Paul Tucker. She died in 1924. Their son, Raymond, a pursuit plane pilot in World War II, was lost on a mission in the Panama Canal area April 7, 1943.

The Keslers were active members of the First Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Maggie Kesler died April 25, 1931. Mr. Kesler died October 21, 1943.

Ralph Kesler attended college at Capital University, Columbus, Ohio, and Texas A. & M. University. He married Lucyle Baker in 1930. She graduated from Texas Woman's University and taught home economics in Texas schools for seventeen years.

Ralph, like his father, is a builder. During World War II, he was building supervisor of Lone Star Steel in Morris County. In 1944, Ralph and Dave Sanders, Sr., started S. & K. Fixtures, a manufacturing business, making drug store fixtures. Later, church furniture was manufactured and this continues to be the product made by S. & K. Ralph sold his half-interest in this business in 1953.

Ralph Kesler has continued building. He rebuilt his family church, the First Presbyterian, U.S.A., Jacksonville, in 1960. This congregation celebrated its 100th anniversary in September, 1971. Ralph, an elder in his church, and his wife are active members. Many fine homes here were built by Ralph Kesler.

Ralph has for many years been a director of the Nan Travis Memorial Hospital. His wife, Lucyle, is a past president of the "Pink Ladies."

The Kesler family